Today, I am reading and commenting on John 8-9.

John writes that Jesus told the Jews who believed Him that if they followed His teachings, they were His disciples, and that they would know the truth and the truth would set them free.  To which they responded that, as Abraham’s descendants, they were already free.  Jesus then told them that anyone who sins is a slave to sin.  Further, He says that they are trying to kill Him, because they have no room for His word.  I was struck today by the fact that John starts by saying this conversation was between Jesus and Jews who believed Him.  Yet, the discussion quickly turned confrontational.  Did the Jews who believed Jesus turn against Him when He told them they needed to be free?  Or, did Jews who already opposed Jesus insert themselves into this discussion because they thought they saw an opportunity to turn some of His followers against Him.  All of this resulted from Jesus saying that following His teachings will show us the truth and the truth will set us free.  I want to tie that together with the account John gives about Jesus healing a man born blind.  When the Pharisees confronted the man saying that they knew Jesus was a sinner, the man replied that he did not know about any of that, all he knew was that he had been blind but now he could see.  A little later, Jesus says that He came into the world so that the blind would see and those who can see will become blind.  Let us follow the example of the blind man and know only what Jesus has done for us.  If we do that, we will be able to see and He will reveal Truth to us so that we may be free.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.